Women

In January of 2015, the Women’s Foundation, headquartered in Kansas City, MO, published a report called “The Status of Women in Missouri.”

On Thursday’s St. Louis on the Air, Wendy Doyle, President and CEO of the Women’s Foundation, and Sonja Erickson, senior analyst at the Institute for Public Policy, joined host Don Marsh to discuss the report, its findings and what measures are being taken to help solve the issues highlighted in the report.

When Shante Duncan founded Sisters Helping Each other to Reach a Higher Height (S.H.E.R.A.H.) in 2004, three women came to her house to share their dreams and goals and to “become better versions of themselves.” Duncan was in her early 20s, a native of north St. Louis who returned to the area to help her community, and she was going through a difficult breakup.

“I was a woman hurt and I wanted to reach out to other sisters to say, ‘This hurts, are you hurting? What can we do to heal? Once we do that, how do we take this to heal our community?’” Duncan explained.

Images of the perfect female form are all around us, on social media, in movies and in advertisements for products from liquor to luxury cars. It’s hard not to feel inferior no matter what kind of body you have.

Fox Smith of Shrewsbury has complicated feelings about her appearance.

Right now, the storefront just off of Cherokee Street is still a construction site. A pile of plaster has been recently chipped away to expose a historic brick wall. A family of squirrels lives in the air conditioning wall unit.

But Sarah Michelson and Willow Rosen have big plans. The space will house a midwifery center, community space for parenting classes, and “Box,” a feminist sex toy shop.

As women strive to gain equal ground in the workplace, they’re also working to establish the same ground in the arts. The Women in the Arts Conference at the University of Missouri–St. Louis will feature lectures, demonstrations, papers, performances and workshops from 27 speakers on Nov. 6-8.

“Everyone thinks the playing field is level,” said Barbara Harbach, a composer and director of the Women in the Arts Conference. “It’s not quite as level as you might think.”

It’s Tuesday, that magical day of the week when our thoughts turn to questions of economics, business, innovation, technology … and related topics that tickle our fancy but we haven’t been able to report on ourselves. It’s the day we say, “Don’t think we haven’t been paying attention, dear reader,” and we share some the things we’ve been reading on topics of interest.

In Western media, we hear reports that Muslim women are relegated to a second class, largely powerless status and are denied education, independence and employment. We hear stories of women brutalized and abused.

At the time of the American Revolution, married women in America were not even allowed to own property, let alone vote. Because women did not sign the Declaration of Independence, serve as generals in the war, or get elected to public office, they are not often mentioned in the history of the time.

But despite their lack of official roles, there were women who helped found our nation through their words and deeds, and through their association with the men who have become known as our Founding Fathers.

Women are not a homogenous voting bloc in elections though their influence as a group plays a big role.

President Barack Obama carried 55 percent of the demographic on his way to re-election.

Host Don Marsh talks with two political experts about the role women played in the 2012 election cycle, both as voters and as candidates.

Marsh is joined by Dayna Stock, Manager of the Sue Shear Institute for Women in Public Life at the University of Missouri – St. Louis, and Gwyneth Williams, professor of political science at Webster University.